Friday, January 7, 2011

1. A win is a win is a win: It wasn't pretty, but the Mavericks won for the seventh time in their last nine games and moved above .500 (9-8-4) for the first time this season. Amid some sloppy and sleepy play, Phil Cook stopped 17 shots (just one in the third period!) for his second career shutout, and Rylan Galiardi scored the game's lone goal, a power-play marker with 2:32 to play in the first period. "The reason why we're not happy is if we play like that in bigger games, that's not good enough," Galiardi said.

2. Meisner the miser: American International goaltender Ben Meisner stopped 51 of 52 shots, including all 22 he faced in the second period. He didn't make many brilliant saves -- most of MSU's shots hit the bumblebee on his sweater right between the eyes. But he did make one phenomenal stop on an Eriah Hayes breakaway out of the penalty box in the first minute of the third period. "To get 52 shots and score one goal? Are you kidding me?" Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said.

3. This won't hurt a bit: The Mavericks might not be happy with the way they played -- even Cook wasn't celebrating his shutout -- but it beats losing a game that could hurt them when it comes to postseason rankings. A loss or a tie could be a killer. The Mavericks' nonconference record right now is a very solid 5-0-2 with one game remaining -- Saturday night against AIC again. "I think we'll be worried if we come out the same way tomorrow," Galiardi said.

2 comments:

A win is a win...but I wouldn' tbe celebrating either. That was an ugly and boring game. Pretty bad when the highlight was Galiardi scoring after the whistle. That was hands down the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!

The AIU goalie stopped a lot of shots but really, maybe 10 were quality shots.

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Shane Frederick

Shane has been covering Minnesota State hockey, the WCHA and other college and high school hockey in the Mankato area for The Free Press since 2000. Give him a call at 507-344-6373 or drop him an email him at sfrederick@mankatofreepress.com.